Wall Street ends week higher but posts monthly loss

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

U.S. stocks ended the week with gains but posted losses for the month.

Due to the observance of Good Friday, Thursday was the last trading day of the week and the month and the final weekday of the first quarter of 2018 for Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Thursday up 254 points, or 1.1 percent, at 24,103.

The S&P 500 rose 35 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,640 while the Nasdaq finished up 114 points, or 1.6 percent, at 7,063.

Technology stocks bounced back from losses earlier in the week and carried Wall Street to a higher close.

At the final bell, Microsoft shares were up 2.1 percent after the company announced it was restructuring.

After their CEOs were invited to a Senate hearing next month and posting losses earlier this week, Facebook, Twitter and Google parent company Alphabet rose 4.4 percent, 1.9 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.

Amazon bounced back to end the day up 1.1 percent despite further criticism by President Donald Trump that the company does not pay enough taxes and a 4.6 percent loss during trading hours.

The Dow was up 2.7 percent this week, while the S&P gained 2 percent and the Nasdaq increased 1 percent, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

But the gains could not prevent the indexes from closing the month with losses.

This month, the Dow decreased 3.5 percent, the S&P fell 2.6 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.9 percent.

For the first quarter of 2018, the Dow declined 2.3 percent and the S&P lost 1.2 percent, but the Nasdaq gained 2.3 percent.